Thousands Come Out in Force to Protest President-Elect Trump

Protesters+set+fire+to+an+effigy+of+President-Elect+Trump+outside+Los+Angles+City+Hall+the+day+after+the+election.

Photo courtesy of www.cnn.com

Protesters set fire to an effigy of President-Elect Trump outside Los Angles City Hall the day after the election.

In one of the most hotly contested and surprising presidential elections of our time, Americans awoke on the morning of November 9 to learn that Donald Trump was the country’s newly elected president. Some of the country roared with excitement while others mourned. Still others took matters into their own hands, either peaceably protesting their new commander-in-chief, or lashing out in acts of violence and hate. In Oakland, California, protesters started small fires around the city which injured several police officers. In Los Angeles, protesters burned a sculpture of Trump and shut down part of Highway 101. In Portland, Oregon, a mob of protesters bashed a pregnant woman’s car with a baseball bat and shook her vehicle, leaving her trapped inside as she tried to get to the hospital.

Why did some people react with such anger and vitriol? Perhaps it was because many people around the country were led to believe that Trump was not going to be elected, since most national polls did not reflect the apparent lead he had. So when the final results were tallied, anti-Trump groups were stunned. This may have been a major reason for the uproar around the country.

Immediately following the election, there were protests in at least 15 different states around the country spanning coast to coast. They all had a common message: Trump is “not our president.” People from all walks of life protested the president-elect: young, old, blacks, whites, Latinos, women, and men. According to The Los Angeles Times article “Many Trump Protesters Say This Is the First Time They’ve Protested Anything” by Barbara Demick, Adam Elmahrek, and Matt Pearce, many of the protesters were first-time demonstrators. “Many of those on the streets this week are young, first-time activists who scarcely remember life under a president other than Barack Obama,” wrote Demick et al. “They hold wide-ranging political views but seem unified in their shock at Trump’s aggressive rhetoric and his victory over an opponent who got more votes.”

The article also noted that the people demonstrating were not necessarily Clinton supporters. “Those out in the streets have been not just Clinton supporters, but include many Bernie Sanders supporters who were skeptical of her candidacy, and some who chose the Green Party’s Jill Stein and Libertarian Gary Johnson, according to interviews with more than two dozen young demonstrators across the nation.”

According to The Los Angeles Times article, some people were simple protesting to lend support to those who were devastated by the election’s result. “ ‘I’m not protesting because I hate democracy or hate Donald Trump,’ said Amy Vandenberg, a 21-year-old psychology student at USC who joined the protests in Los Angeles. ‘There are a lot of marginalized people in this country who are scared, are hurting. If I can protest as a white person to say, “I see you, I’m with you and I love you,” that’s what I’m going to do.’ ”

The election was exciting for many of the eighth-grade Benjamin students because they were in D.C. for the grade’s annual field study during the election. They followed the election all night in a conference room at their hotel, and some students even saw some of the protests forming and taking place the following evening. While heading back to the buses after their ghost tour, which took place near the White House, a group of eighth graders saw a crowd of demonstrators gathering in front of the president’s home. “I saw a lot of angry people protesting,” said eighth grader Lauren Papa. “They were mad and determined to prove that they did not support Trump.” However, the students quickly boarded the buses and were able to avoid getting caught up in the demonstration.

Some students, though, saw no point to the protests. “I thought, ‘What are the protesters going to accomplish going and protesting at the White House?’ ” said eighth grader Andrew Weisz, who witnessed the protests first hand. “It is not going to work.” His thoughts were mirrored by those of fellow eighth grader Nick Lutz: “I thought it was dumb because they were not going to get anything done by protesting.”

Some people, instead of taking out their anger through protesting, decided to mourn. Such behavior was welcomed and encouraged at universities around the country. According to an article in the US Herald, author Melissa Davis wrote, “In the wake of the surprise victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump, universities saw themselves not as a forum for debate or even protest, but as babysitters charged with comforting students who were unable to deal with reality. Tufts University made an arts and crafts center available. The University of Kansas invited therapy dogs to campus for comfort. The University of Michigan had a play area with coloring books. Cornell hosted what it termed a ‘cry-in’ where faculty and staff handed out hot cocoa and tissues.”

There has been debate as to whether this strategy to cope with the election was right, since some felt it coddled those who were upset, and didn’t teach them to engage in an open dialogue and come to terms with the result. Yale economics professor Mr. Steven Berry recently wrote in his opinion piece for The Washington Post that the media has portrayed students, “particularly at elite universities,” as “intellectually brittle and unable to cope with opposing points of view.”

However, he was pleasantly surprised to find that when he reluctantly gave his students the option not to take his course’s mid-term exam the day after the election, most of his students showed up anyway to take the rigorous test. His article for the post was titled, “My Students Aren’t Snowflakes, and They Don’t Melt.”

However, the divide between conservatives and liberals wasn’t just felt on college campuses, but even found a way to wedge itself between family members. According to The New York Times’ article “Political Divide Splits Relationships — and Thanksgiving, Too” by Sabrina Tavernise and Katharine Q. Seelye, some families even went as far as “canceling Christmas and Thanksgiving plans with their friends and family.” They did not feel it was worth their time to quarrel with their family about the election and its outcome.

Photo courtesy of www.nytimes.com
Some people, such as this woman, wear safety pins to let minorities and other marginalized groups know they support them.

Some Americans, fearing that Trump symbolizes bigotry, have resorted to accessorizing to show support for those groups they fear Trump and his supporters marginalize. According to “Safety Pins Show Support for the Vulnerable,” an article by Valeriya Safronovanov in The New York Times, “fears are growing that segments of [Trump’s] base may physically or emotionally abuse minorities, immigrants, women and members of the L.G.B.T. community. As a show of support, groups of people across America are attaching safety pins to their lapels, shirts and dresses to signify that they are linked, willing to stand up for the vulnerable.”

Now while some of the protests have started to die down, one protest is just beginning. On January 21, 2017 millions of women will hold a Million Women March. The protest will begin at the Lincoln Memorial and end at the White House. This march will include people from all around the world who support women’s rights. They will march as a demonstration against Trump for his discriminatory actions against and remarks about women. During the campaign, the Clinton camp ran ads quoting the derogatory remarks he made about various women, hoping the ads would put off undecided voters. Those participating in the January 21 march want to make sure women’s rights will be honored and respected by Trump’s administration, and that women will be treated equally and reverantly.

Despite people’s feelings about the election, the reality is that Donald Trump is the 45th president of the United States, and that it’s important now more than ever to come together as Americans. Whether people supported him or not, he is now our current president – a fact our nation needs to accept in order to move on and focus on the number of critical issues facing America: the creation of jobs and the economy, education, the environment, and the threat of terrorism to name just a few.